Impact of Emerging COVID-19 variants on psychosocial health: A Systematic Review

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant psychological effects on individuals and communities around the world. Studies have found that the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms increased significantly during the pandemic. The goal of the study is to understand how the emerging new virus variants keep the world in a state of fear and the ways in which mental health measures can be implemented and adopted to alleviate anxiety. Methods A broad search for observational studies were carried out in Pubmed, Google Scholar, Clinical Key, and World Medical Library. Studies that reported and/or related the existence of anxiety generated by suffering or not from diseases caused by the new emerging Covid-19 viruses and that for which the full text of the article was accessible were included in the study while systematic review and meta-analysis and studies in groups were excluded. Results 22 studies were included in the review. The deleterious psychosocial effects were the restructuring of life, establishment of unhealthy habits, emergence of " corona phobia ", fear and stigma of being afflicted with the disease and spreading it to loved ones, and lack of contact with others. Increased rates of depression and anxiety were also seen. The circulating variants responsible for these main psychosocial repercussions were: Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Iota, Kappa, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta . Social support was found to be protective. Conclusion Hence interventions targeted at promoting mental health should be considered a public health priority. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript